Work experience… My snapshot by Josh Plotnek

Tuesday 5th July

 Today is the second day of my work experience at Tyndallwoods Solicitors. As a budding lawyer eager to learn the ropes and gain valuable experience, I was looking forward to what lay in store. That morning, I was told I would be attending a Quilter Cheviot charity seminar. Not knowing what to expect, I grabbed my notepad and accompanied Judy to 2 Snowhill.

When we arrived at the venue, it soon dawned on me that the seminar was no ordinary affair – the modern building was complete with pristine marble flooring and the seminar room was brimming with suits crowded around the refreshments.

The seminar began with a talk from Quilter Cheviot about investment management for charities. The next few speakers focused more on the day-to-day management of charities: governance challenges for trustees and the benefits of NCVOs. One of the later speakers, James McLaughlin, spoke on securing support in a competitive environment. He spoke about his charity, Cure Leukaemia, how it started and the amazing work it has done since its inception.

All in all, an insightful day; I had never considered the investment management aspect of charity and the administration that goes into being a trustee or CEO.

Wednesday 6th July

 Having had an introduction to Wills on Monday, the next area I gained experience in was Probate and Estate Administration. I was set the task by Judy to calculate the rate of IHT on a residuary estate divided between exempt and non-exempt beneficiaries.

I was not left completely in the dark however; I was directed to the gov.uk website on IHT. I discovered that what I would need to do to determine a partially exempt estate would be to gross up any legacies that are free of tax. The question now was which type of grossing up was required: single, double or Re Benham. After some more research, I concluded that I had single gross. I followed the formula and submitted my answer to Judy, which turned out to be correct.

All in a day’s work, I guess…

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